Photos

Hello Everyone,

It’s been another long month at Echoes of Eternea. I wish we could supply another video to show some of the bigger progress, but unfortunately this has been a month of the kinds of improvements that don’t come off as visually impressive. Still, we promised we would continue to update you whether we had much to show or not, and we’re committed to keeping to that.

We have had at least three solid weeks of positive forward motion and two that were less productive. We finally switched over to a movement system that will allow characters to travel pixel by pixel, rather than confine them to full tile steps moving in a grid. We feel this will better fit the feeling of the late 16-bit era style, but of course this means we’ve had to go back into many old maps and make fine adjustments (corrections to boundaries so that players don’t slip between walls) which has been time consuming.

Art is nearly completed, but we don’t want to say it will be done soon because every time that we've done that we've discovered additional art that we need.

Since we began EoE there have been many changes, elements that have been added and removed as necessary. Our overworld has been completely overhauled and many locations were removed from the game or condensed to allow us to better focus on the important places.
Here is a taste of our new world map.

If any backers have any specific questions about something they would like to know more about: please ask in the comments and we can try to address them in our next update.
We’re hoping to have a date for the demo by then.

Hello Everyone!

First and foremost, I would like to thank you for your patience. As mentioned by Robert in the comments, it’s been a long and arduous road, but things are finally settling into a better rhythm.

We’ve like to share a few gameplay sequences with you. All of these will be featured in the upcoming demo. Mind you, these are nowhere near final drafts, but they illustrate the look and feel that we’re going for.

In addition to the video, we’ve included screenshots of a few new areas including the Army Base. Here, we meet the stoic, yet deeply conflicted Ciel for the first time.

The Road Ahead

Our immediate plans are to build more gameplay sequences, create and upload more assets and tweak, tweak, tweak. We also plan to provide a monthly update regardless of progress. In the past, we only updated when we felt there was some big improvement to show. We realize now that that wasn’t the best approach, as it kept you out of the loop. You deserve better.

One thing we’ve learned is that RPG game development is no easy task. Most of us have worked on games before, but never anything of this scale and magnitude. It is both a rewarding and frustrating experience, marked by wonderful highs and soul crushing lows.

We’ve learned a great deal in the process, from improving workflow, managing our expectations and organizing tasks. Yes, there have been difficult times, and I’m sure they’ll be more. But despite our busy schedules, tight budget and scattered locations, we will persevere – if only because we’re all passionate about the RPG genre of games.

Stick with us, we’ll see you in September – and if a breakthrough is made, perhaps even sooner!

Hello Everyone!

Welcome back to another update on Echoes of Eternea! Let's get right into it.

New Area Revealed: Venn Swamplands:

The Venn Swamplands, is located off the Perju River to the South of the continent of Brighton, just before the Port City Vannault. The Venn Swamplands effectively separates Vannault from the rest of Brighton and gives them the independence they crave. Over the years, the land inside the Venn Swamplands has continually sunk into the Perju River, causing passage through the Swamplands to be difficult. The Venn Swamplands also hold an invaluable treasure! The Indar Erditu can be found here just off the beaten path. She is a challenging opponent, but can become an great ally if bested!

New Monsters and a look at Eridtu:

Since we just revealed the Venn Swamplands, we thought we would also show off some of the monsters native to the area. Please enjoy the fantastic sprite artwork by Tomas Frose!

Sumu

Maibaza

Igel

Deabru

Erditu

A Glimpse at the Opening Cinematic:

Done in the same style as "Jessica - The One Winged Angel," which we announced in a past update, this Cinematic will tell the player a bit of the back story to the world of EoE and set up the games narrative. We plan on completing this Cinematic in the coming weeks and tie it in with Echoes of Eternea's first trailer! Enjoy!

Engine Progress:

In our last update, we informed you all about our issues with the engine and programming and we also stated how we planed on fixing that. We are happy to announce that not only did our changes meet expectations, but they have exceeded them! Our new programmer, MIke Upshall, has done an unbelievable job in getting our engine to where to need it to be while also designing it in a way that will make scripting the game far easier for the rest of the team. By the rate that the programming has been going, we estimate to have footage of EoE running in about a month - Six weeks time. We will be sure to keep you informed on how that is going.

For an interesting read, our Lead Programmer, Robert Dellafave, wrote an excellent article on EoE inventory system and how we went about designing and programming it. Trust us, it's more complicated than it sounds! You can check it out by clicking the picture below.

Hello Everyone!

Thank you all for your amazing patience with us since our last update. Over the last few months we have been dealing with a few minor internal issues and one large one that ultimately began to effect production. We are happy to say that these issues have been solved and the future of EoE is looking brighter than ever. One of our goals with running this Kickstarter was to be very forward and translucent to our backers, so below we will discuss our issues with development and our solution for going forward.

What has been going on?:

That is a question some of you may be asking yourselves and this update is specifically for answering that question.

About a month after being funded, we choose to move to a custom built engine in order to escape the limitations of the RPGMaker game engine. While at the time, we knew this choice would extend development time, there were other issues which we could not anticipate. Namely, our primary programmer was having trouble meeting his financial obligations. As a result his work on the engine suffered. Given this, we've made the decision to part ways, and are happy to announce that we are working with a more experienced programmer, able to devote the majority of his time to the project.
However with a change in direction comes additional costs.

As I'm sure you can imagine, programmers don't come cheap. Since we could not have foreseen this cost in our original budget, many of our team members have had to take on extra work to afford him, thus taking away some of their time from development. While we don't require your assistance - you've already done more than enough to exhibit your support - it would be greatly beneficial to us if we could alleviate the financial burden away from our teammates to ensure the can spend that time on development. We announced a way to donate via PayPal in our last update by visiting our website, www.eoegames.com, so spreading knowledge of that will be a great assistance. (All digital rewards are still available.)

Progress is still being made!:

By what you just read, you might assume that no progress on EoE has been made since our last update. Let us assure you that is not the case! In fact, much progress has been made!

We used this down time to look at our story as a whole, picking each and every scene apart. We found better ways to streamline the story and conversations so that the player will always stay engaged and attentive. We also used this time to fill any holes we found in the story, ensuring a solid narrative throughout. Although we would have liked to spend this time building the literal game, we are happy that it led to a more solid game narrative (And we are positive you will be too!).

Our graphic production also continued and almost all departments are nearing completion! We have prepared a short, still framed cinematic for our trailer that we are very excited to share when the time comes! It's been so exciting seeing our work materialize and the game as a whole develop visually.

We have also made some minor improvements to our battle system to keep things interesting and speedy. We also spent some time tightening up the stats for the characters and monsters to ensure a limited need for "grinding."

Finally, we were able to complete a for more areas of the game world are about to begin building the next big dungeon! We will have screenshots featuring these areas soon.

Where do we go from here?:

As mentioned in our first topic, we were able to secure a new programmer to replace our old one. While he does not start officially until February 1st, he has already begun working on the engine out of sheer enthusiasm and has completed more in 1 week than our old programmer could do in a single month! We are very optimistic about our new programmer and what he will bring to our development team!

So, going forward, our game engine is to be completed in 5 months. During this time, our game engine will be completed by our new programmer to allow our team to finish production of Echoes of Eternea. Even though the engine wont be done for 5 months, we will still be able to begin coding the game (In fact, we already have been for months!) albeit at a slower rate than if the engine and all features needed were done. We still don't want to put any specific date out for a release, but we are positive that we will have that information soon.

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We thank you again for your patience with us during this stumbling block. We will be back much sooner than usual for a more meaty update, so please look forward to that! Also, please leave any questions you have for us in the comments and we will get to them ASAP!

Hello Everyone!

Thanks for holding out till this update! As we head into the holiday season, we wanted to offer you all the treat of sharing some of the work that has been going on since we last posted!

Synopsis:

Completed Logo

Development Progess

EoE Games Website goes live!

PayPal donations

Tales of the Maiden

Brand new wallpapers!

Completed Logo

One of the most compelling elements of the game’s production has been the correspondence between our team and our backers and fans. We would like to thank you all for your feedback about our logo prototype. Your responses helped us to shape it to what it is today. We are proud to present the new and final logo for Echoes of Eternea!

We released the new logo two weeks ago on Facebook and it quickly became the most popular post that we ever made. The responses were very encouraging. Some said that just the logo alone makes them want to play the game! One of the core design tenets of our game is “A Modern Take on Classic Design.” We wanted our logo to capture that JRPG spirit and are happy with both the end result and fan reaction to it.

Development Progress:

Over the last two months, Echoes of Eternea has seen the most tangible growth since it’s inception! In fact, we are nearly done with the EoE’s entire first act! This can be attributed to our plan to shift around responsibilities between myself and the programming team, that while initially rocky, quickly became invaluable to production. A new engine, assets developed from scratch, and a far-flung array of independent contributors in all facets have made for some *interesting* design pipelines, but now that it is all coming together, it’s wonderful to see.

Over the next few weeks, we will be going back through Act 1 and populating it with NPC’s and polishing it up to Beta status. We have plans to begin releasing gameplay footage shortly after that. We are also working on producing EoE’s first trailer that we hope to have completed by the end of this year, though it is very art intensive, so please understand if we can’t meet that goal.

EOE Games Website Goes Live!:

Now that the game is taking shape, we've hit another production milestone: the right time to launch the website for the game: www.eoegames.com. Work on the site is still underway, so look forward to seeing updates to it's information and design! Bookmark us and visit us often for new screen shots, gameplay videos, and important information about all things Echoes of Eternea and EOEGames!

PayPal Donations:

Along with our website launch, we have opened up the option to donate via PayPal. We have received hundreds of emails from fans who missed out on our Kickstarter and who wanted to chance to help fund production. The funds that we receive through this process will allow us to develop more unique assets for the game during its production - additional music tracks, sprites, and original art. If you’ve been following the game but haven’t pledged or if you have friends who feel they missed out, here is an opportunity to come onboard! We would love to have you!

Tales of the Maiden:

The Eternal Maiden is not one person, but a title held by many people through the centuries. While Echoes of Eternea focuses on the newest, Namie Alguard, we were always on the lookout for unique opportunities to share some of the world’s rich lore with the players. Scattered throughout the game are multiple cinematics which give the player a glimpse into the world’s history and what it means to be Eternal Maiden. We call these the Tales of the Maiden, illustrated stories narrated and scored in similar fashion to motion comics. Attached are a few of the drawings from one of the tales, The One-Winged Butterfly.

Brand New Wallpapers!:

Show of your support for Echoes of Eternea with these stylish new wallpapers! You can find both wallpapers in the links below in various resolutions.

FOLLOW OUR PROGRESS

For all our American friends, we wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving week! Safe travels! For all the Echoes of Eternea fans around the world, have a wonderful holiday season and be on the lookout all through December for updates large and small as production moves along!